CU-Boulder considers whether to offer Common Application

Campus facing increasing competition from out-of-state recruiters

Monika De La Rosa, left, a student ambassador at the University of Colorado, leads a tour of prospective students and their parents on the campus in March 2011. (Marty Caivano/Camera file photo)

The University of Colorado might join nearly 500 other schools across the country in using the uniform Common Application to evaluate prospective students.

Kevin MacLennan, director of CU's admissions office, said the university is exploring whether it should offer the form beginning with the class entering in fall 2014.

It's possible that CU could give applicants the option of using either the Common Application or CU's traditional form. Now, 488 colleges and universities across the country accept the Common Application, which streamlines the admissions process for students interested in several colleges.

"We're very interested in being student-friendly in our admissions process," MacLennan said.

Also, faculty members are prepared to take part in a "letter-writing" campaign, sending personal messages to students who have been accepted to the university, said Melinda Piket-May, an associate professor electrical, computer and energy engineering at CU and a faculty leader.

Enrollment of in-state freshmen dropped slightly this fall, which chief financial officer Kelly Fox speculated was due to increased competition from out-of-state recruiters. Historically, there have been three full-time, out-of-state recruiters stationed in Colorado. Now, there are 20, and they are recruiting Colorado's top students to schools in Michigan, Missouri, California and Wyoming.

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The size of this year's freshman class is about 5,500, on par with the historical average but smaller than last year's class of 5,663 freshmen.

If CU were to adopt the Common Application, the campus would join several other colleges in the state, including Colorado State University, the University of Denver, Colorado College, Regis University and Boulder's Buddhist-inspired Naropa University.

CU freshman Eva Weiberg, a studio arts student from Connecticut, said she used the Common Application to apply for colleges -- ranging from New York University to Drexel University in Philadelphia to DU.

CU was the only college she applied to that didn't offer the Common Application. She said that didn't stop her from applying to the school she became intrigued with while visiting family in Colorado when she was a kid.

"It would have made it more convenient, though," she said.

The Common Application, a nonprofit organization, is open to universities that take a holistic approach to admitting students -- meaning they consider more than just test scores and high school grade-point averages by looking at factors such as recommendation letters, essays and diversity.

The form asks applicants about test scores, grade-point information, academic honors, participation in extracurricular activities, work experience and for a short essay. It also asks about an applicant's criminal and disciplinary history.

Last year, 660,000 people submitted 2.75 million applications through the online Common Application.

About 25 percent of college students apply to seven or more schools, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

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